Blood Shadow: Book of Manuel

are still a great mother!"

  "Back to sleep," Belinda said as her eyes closed, and then she was back in her bed with Agent Blake at Hartwell's house, thinking of the events that had just unfolded and how they were part of some cushy flashback dream.

  Blake, being a former F.B.I. agent, was awakened by the strange ramblings of his wife. He had never witnessed this type of active dreaming from Belinda, and immediately wondered if Hartwell had anything to do with the extreme pattern change?

  Belinda always had slept through the night and barely moved off her stomach from the time she went to sleep to when she woke up in the morning.

  Blake tried to jostle her with a few mild pokes and shoves but she did not respond. Usually, simply touching her would be adequate to interrupting her sleep, but not this time.

  "She's not here," Blake whispered to himself.

  "Why am I whispering?" he whispered again and then shook his head in disbelief. Agent Blake rolled out of bed and his first stop was to check on Daniel. He thought if Hartwell was pulling strings, surely Daniel would somehow be involved. He took a few steps out of the room and then realized he was only wearing his light blue boxer shorts with yellow giraffes all over them, so he doubled back and put on a robe. He then strode quickly by Daniel and Nicole's room and was about to give his daughter and son-in-law the privacy they deserved until he saw only one body in the bed.

  He again turned to his good friend, the whisper, after he entered the room.

  "Nicole, wake up."

  Nicole didn't move, so Blake rolled his eyes and was just about to use a louder tone of voice until light-sleeping Nicole awoke from her slumber and was surprised to see her father standing over her bed.

  "Dad?" she asked as she jumped up. "What are you doing in here?"

  "Trust me," Daddy Blake said in a normal, full voice.

  "Where is Daniel?"

  "I have a strong suspicion he is somewhere with Hartwell, but he might be coming back soon," Blake replied.

  TEN

  Back at the hospital formerly known as Nightsdale, the two Daniel's sat on the bed as Hartwell and Manuel stood across from them.

  "Who's the big chief?" elder Daniel asked.

  "How did he know I was a chief?" Manuel asked Hartwell as if he knew the answer to the complicated riddle that was Manuel.

  "I didn't even know you were a chief?" Hartwell replied.

  "Then who is he? My mom always tells me that I shouldn't talk to strangers," young Daniel said to Manuel and then folded his arms across his chest. And then elder Daniel and Hartwell did the same, signaling that they were a united front and would not be talking any further until they got some information in return.

  "My name is Manuel," he simply said.

  Daniel turned to Hartwell and asked, "Why is it that every name rhymes with your name?"

  Hartwell had no answer for the logical question, so he turned to Manuel for clarity.

  "Symmetry," Ortiz replied.

  "Yeah, I like it," Daniel agreed.

  Manuel continued, "I am taking your father on a journey that I'm hoping will be clarity to his life."

  Daniel was confused, "But he seems pretty happy right now. I don't think our family has ever been closer."

  Manuel wanted to be careful with his words, "It's not what has been done that concerns me, it's what is yet to be."

  Daniel looked down at little Daniel, who's legs were dangling off the bed and swinging back and forth, to see if he was following the conversation.

  "I'm good," the little guy said.

  Big Daniel beamed that his younger self was already so sharp and was tuned into the adult lingo.

  Hartwell looked at Daniel for the next move, as much of the animosity and confusion he had been feeling abated. He no longer thought this man was there to mess with him, but help him, which was a change of pace for Hartwell who usually wasn't the most trusting of souls.

  "Do you remember the day you first saw your father? This day?" Manuel asked.

  Both Daniel's replied "Yes."

  "Were you scared?"

  "No," they both answered in unison.

  Then young Daniel added, "I felt like I knew him."

  "Yeah, he was familiar," elder Daniel concurred.

  "How was your life going to that point?" Manuel continued his questioning.

  "It was fine," young Daniel replied.

  "We moved a lot, and mom held me out of school quite often," elder Daniel said.

  "Were you really sick?"

  Hartwell was shaking his head back and forth and the Daniel's said "No" in unison.

  Hartwell took over, "But my blood made you stronger?"

  "Yes," little Daniel replied and big Daniel said "Of course."

  "But did it change your life?" Manuel asked, knowing a deeper conversation would ensue.

  The Daniel's looked at each other because the question was much easier to answer on the surface, but when they peeled away the layers, the issue was much more complicated.

  "Of course it changed their life!" an indignant Hartwell interjected. And then he looked at his sons and asked, "Didn't it?"

  "It definitely changed our life," elder Daniel replied trying to assure Hartwell. And then he shifted gears, “But in what capacity? Would I have fallen for Nicole if she wasn’t my natural protector?” he asked. He then turned to little Daniel, “Do you like girls?”

  “Not generally,” the little man replied.

  Then Daniel flashed an image of young Nicole in young Daniel’s mind.

  “She and I were always meant to be together, with or without your blood,” a defiant and self-assured little Daniel stated as he looked at Hartwell.

  “Then why did I have to help you ate the dance?” Hartwell asked, as the group was transported to the Beach Haven High School gymnasium.

  Nicole had been walking with Blake to check on the others throughout the house when she disappeared into thin air. Blake kept walking a few more paces until he could no longer see his daughter’s shadow. He stopped and turned around to see an empty hallway, “They got her, too!”

  “Nothing should surprise me anymore,” he thought to himself. “I have to figure out what’s going on here,” he added out loud.

  ELEVEN

  Carla leapt out of bed and ran into the hallway once she noticed her husband had disappeared.

  “What’s going on here? One moment her was there and the next he was gone!” she asked Blake.

  Carla and Blake walked back into the room and the only thing that Blake could see were ruffled sheets and the outline of Drew’s body.

  “That’s not good,” Agent Blake said without trying to make his reaction sound alarming.

  Carla wanted to be anywhere that Drew was, “I gotta’ get there!”

  “Where is that?” Blake asked.

  “I don’t know, but there is gonna’ come a point when he will need me and I will be there!” she replied.

  The gym was dark and the strobe lights accentuated the pulsing rhythms of the dance music. Drew, Nicole and Daniel were teenagers again and they were having a great time at the sophomore dance, sharing a fierce set of break-dancing. The trio did everything together up until the pint where the music slowed and it was time for her to pick one of the guys to dance with.

  This was about the time when Nicole waited for as both guys created an uncomfortable silence from their collective nervousness. But it was Drew, not Daniel, who eventually stepped up. Hartwell was about to intervene, just as he had done years earlier, with some liquid ex-lax in Drew’s punch to make sure that nature really took its course.

  Drew turned to Hartwell and Manuel, “Do we really have to do this again?”

  Hartwell slipped the lethal elixir back in his pocket and then he looked at Manuel for direction.

  “Are you sure that you want to go ahead with this, son?” Manuel asked, knowing that Andrew never ended up on the winning side when nature was in full bloom between Daniel and Nicole.

  Drew nodd
ed in affirmation as Manuel turned to Hartwell, “Let it play out, Hartwell.”

  Hartwell smirked and then talked to Manuel. “Remember when we waited to see what would happen to me if Lowery didn’t show up?”

  “Yes, you blew your brains out,” Manuel replied and then looked at Hartwell, which helped him realize the full weight of Hartwell’s point.

  “So, you think no matter what the Brewster kid does, she will still come back to your boy?” Manuel asked with a hint of challenge in his voice.

  Hartwell knew what Manuel was trying to say, so he reached into the pocket without the laxative and pulled out a crisp $50 bill.

  It had been 30 years since Manuel might have used currency, and even then he really never had the need to really pay anybody. He searched his pockets and pulled out a $5 bill from one pocket and then two $1 bills from another.

  “I have seven dollars!”

  “I’ll take that bet! My 50 against your seven, “Hartwell stated and then dove deeper. “You win and the 50 is yours, but if I win you have to give me $43 worth of information about you.”

  Manuel smiled, “Sounds like a sucker bet to me.”

  “All bets are sucker bets,” Hartwell countered.

  “Yes they are,” Manuel agreed and the men shook hands on the deal.

  Andrew stayed on the floor with a disappointed Nicole, who had dreamt of this moment for quite some time. She tried to mask her feelings but her friend Drew could feel her angst as they started to slow dance.

  Drew had recreated that night in his mind, both awake and in dreams, over and over again during the years. But he wasn’t alone in revisiting the events of the evening.

  “You know, I only asked you because he didn’t.”

  “What do you mean?” Nicole asked as she stepped back slightly so she could make eye contact